Wednesday, January 27, 2010

In an interview conducted by Musicradar.com, Austin guitar legend Eric Johnson gives details concerning his yet untitled studio album, the follow-up to 2005's 'Bloom' which the guitarist hopes for a spring release.

For the album, Johnson says he wrote 25 songs, then recorded "about 17 or 18", subsequently whittling the list down to roughly a dozen -of which 60 percent are vocal tracks. Addressing his perceived perfectionist tendencies, which have seen him notoriously going years between releases, he admits that he'd like to release records with a greater frequency. However, he's not apologizing for the time he takes, stating, " While he admits that he would like to release records with greater frequency, he's unapologetic for the time he takes in the studio.

"You listen to Stevie Wonder singing You And I - are you going to tell me he isn't a perfectionist?" he says. "Now, he might be one of those guys who can just roll out of bed and sing like that all the time, but I'll bet you he sets the bar pretty high. And with my new album, I set the bar pretty high this time."

Produced by Johnson and engineer Richard Mullen, along with engineer Kelly Donnelly, the album will include guest performances by Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan and Jonny Lang. Mixing the album is Andy Johns, who produced and/or engineered such classic albums such as Free's 'Heartbreaker', 'Led Zeppelin II', Blind Faith's 'Blind Faith', West, Bruce & Laing's 'Why Dontcha' among many others. Lang makes a guest turn on a tip of the hat to Stevie Wonder, a new song called "Austin". Another song, a slide guitar infused instrumental "Soul Surprise" shows the guitarist's admiration for the aforementioned blues rockers Free . For more information go to this location.